Quote:
Originally posted by BLaCKPoWeR
Anti-White prejudice is also bad, but my main point is that it is nowhere near as widespread or as important. Bringing it up is useless imo.
And once again, rare instances of anti-White prejudice are mainly used by racist Whites to diminish the issue of anti-Black racism. For example, a Black girl in my music class was (jokingly) speaking about slavery and segregation and the African-American struggle. Her White boy best friend goes: "SHUT UP! Italians were discriminated against here too." and then he laughs. She laughs with him.
Do you see what's wrong with that? The discrimination that Italians suffered will never compare. He only brought it up to contradict a Black person.
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And that's the most frustrating part! When we talk about PoC discrimination, we're not diminishing the struggles of whites. We're just pointing out the fact that there are EXTRA obstacles to overcome for PoC and that white people are in a position to help us overcome those obstacles. Them realizing their privilege, means they realize their power to cause change (for good or bad). This is why the OP wants it "spread" to other whites. Not because we want to hold the sins of their fathers against them.
We wouldn't even have a Civil Rights Act of 64 if LBJ hadn't aligned himself with our cause. But before that happened, people, especially the white majority in power, had to first LISTEN. And just like in this thread, there was a resistance. It took countless marches, speeches, demonstrations, and lawsuits just to get a
simple message across. But once whites started accepting the inherent inequality in "separate, but equal" things changed for the better.
What's annoying is some white people here trying to brush off their inheritance like it's nothing. That's insulting. It's called taking what you have for granted. You are powerful, dammit! Many people of color would kill for that luxury. Even if you don't believe in white privilege or know that you aren't racist, YOU.STILL.BENEFIT.FROM.RACISM. So why not use that position to help your fellow Americans? Why trivialize their struggle by equating your individual
instance of exclusion or judgement based on race to facing a
whole system and a
history that works against you in so many ways?
This isn't a pissing contest to see who has it worse. In fact, there is no contest, minorities have it worse plain and simple. It's about uplifting each other. So when a PoC reports with a story about prejudice, LISTEN. You may be surprised at how much you can actually help. That's all this "white privilege" thing is about. Realizing your power and (hopefully) using it to better the lives of those who are at a social disadvantage to you.